Sea Read Online Free Page A

go, I have to get a ton of shots. They have serious diseases over there, you know,” I mumbled.
    “We’ll just have to put you in a bubble when you get back so you don’t contaminate us with your cooties.” I felt him leaning closer.
    “Would you visit me in the bubble?”
    “Of course,” Spider said. “I’d bring you Popsicles and cheesy celebrity magazines.”
    “In that case, it might be worth going. I think a bubble house life would appeal to me.”
    Then Spider started tickling me. I feigned protest, hugging the backpack to my chest. “Spider, stop!”
    Then we kind of rolled around laughing.
    It felt good to laugh. Strange. Like I didn’t recognize the sound of my own laughter.
    Spider started tickling me again and I laughed some more until suddenly Spider’s face was too close. He stopped laughing. His eyes looked different.
    Something clicked. He was right. The little girl on the documentary. The backpack. Him.
    I jumped up. “I need to go, Spider. You’re right!”
    “You mean go home? What’s wrong?” Spider stood up from the bed, concerned.
    “I’m fine,” I said. “I just need to tell my dad I’m going.”
    He held on to my shoulders and I froze.
    Was he trying to kiss me?
    No. That couldn’t happen.
    “So you’re going to go?” he asked, puzzled. “And you decided that just now?”
    I kept the backpack firmly between us. “Yeah,” I said. It was the truth.
    Ducking out of his arms, I headed for the door so he couldn’t see the confusion on my face. “I think ... I think it’s the right thing to do.”
    Even if I wanted him to, I couldn’t let Spider kiss me.
    I remembered the last time as clear as if it were yesterday. His curious eyes and his cherry soda lips.
    And then the horrible thing that happened after.
    I wasn’t sure about a lot of things, but I was sure about this.
    I would never be brave enough to try again.
    I ran out of Spider’s house the same way I had that terrible day.
    Maybe an ocean between us wouldn’t be such a bad thing.

SHARKS
    “So you’re really going tonight?” Bev asked.
    A week later, we were lying side by side on matching striped towels down at the cove, waiting for the rest of the group to arrive for our fare-thee-well bonfire.
    “Looks like ...” My stomach churned when I even thought about the midnight flight.
    “You’re going to be okay, dude.”
    I looked at her sideways. Then I took a swig out of my water bottle. “I hope so.”
    “The person you should be worried about is me,” Bev joked, smoothing down her straight black bob. “I mean, two whole weeks without you? I’m going to be so bored.”
    “You have your brother,” I said, uneasiness creeping into my voice. I hadn’t seen him since that awkward day in his room.
    “Yeah, right.” Bev rolled her eyes. “I’m completely irrelevant to him. As is anyone who doesn’t surf.”
    That stung, but I let it pass. Bev was right on, as usual. I didn’t want to think about Spider anyway. All I wanted to do was soak up the sun and watch powder-puff clouds float in the sky. I didn’t want to think about the trip or how sore my arms were because of all the needle-poking shots.
    I sighed, leaned back, basked in the heat of the day.
    Sunny Cove’s golden beach was packed, dotted with families, zigzagging Frisbees and seagulls grazing the sand for PB&J crusts. The teal waves were breaking perfectly. Dozens of surfers were out waiting for that perfect ride.
    “Why don’t you surf again, Bev?” I asked, forgetting her reason.
    “Three words: great white sharks,” she said with a snort, pulling a vintage T-shirt over her head. “You know that.”
    Sharks. Now I was thinking about Spider and everything else dangerous and lurking underwater. “Do you see your brother?”
    “No, but I’m not exactly looking for him.”
    I scanned the waves and stopped. I knew his surfboard like I used to know him. A short, red-and-white board with a black spiderweb painted on the nose. On his